Crawl Out Through The Fallout (Fo4 Fanfic)

18 candles

  
       Over a period of months the Minutemen grew. Thanks to their ever so selfless General. Fiona became a settlement building machine. Before the war if there was a leaky faucet she was done for. Now she's setting up complete plumbing systems to supply water to entire settlements.
    Her combat sense had also refined. Before she was so set on hating the world instead of owning it. She began modding guns and armor,  hopefully to rely less on Erin's kill drive.
    Fiona was so focused on gaining support for the Minutemen, she forgot the days. She woke up to the warm sun heating her face. Crows squawked in the distance, otherwise it was a nice quiet morning. Though something felt weird about today. She sat up, looking around the house. Erin was no where to be seen. Maybe Preston had him moving things around Sanctuary. Fiona got out of bed and wandered down the hall. Confused, she checked the time. It was only 9:00. Nathan was usually still in bed around this time. She shrugged it off retiring to the living room. It was about time to get to work anyway.
    Fiona got ready as usual. Tying her shoes, putting her hair up, acting like her underwire wasn't stabbing her chest, and throwing her gun in the holster on her hip. She started using Kellogg's pistol, once she got over the fact he used it to shoot her mom of course.
    Walking outside she noticed no one was around. Weird... She thought. Until she heard arguing across the street. She looked through the window to see everyone congregated in the yellow house across. Was there a meeting she missed?
   She curiously crept through the door. Everyone immediately turned their attention to her. She silently stared into the group. The scene before her was quite out of the ordinary. Though mama Murphy sat in her chair, as usual. But Preston was in the middle of hanging a ratty banner in the door way, Nathan holding up the other side. Erin's hands were covered in red stuff, Fiona only hoped it wasn't Marcy's blood. Everyone else simply stood there doe eyed, like they were caught.

  "Uh... Did I miss something?" Fiona asked, utterly confused. Erin looked up at Preston and then to Nathan. "It's backwards." He sighed, rubbing his temples. Nathan quickly flipped the cloth over. "Upside down... Fucking idiots." The two flipped it again. Fiona attempted to read the banner. The red paint was nearly unintelligible. "Ha...happy birthday?" She guessed, looking to Nathan. Who then nodded vigorously. "Happy birthday!" Everyone said, out of unison, and wavering enthusiasm. Nathan had the biggest, stupidest smile she'd ever seen. The missing chunk of skin on his jaw just accentuated it.
    Fiona quickly checked the date in her pipboy. It was in fact May 30th. Her birthday. "Oh My little girl! The big one eight! You're all grown up!" Nathan melodramatically caught her up in a bear hug. "Haha, thank you! You guys didn't have to do all this." Fiona wheezed through the tight hug.
    Eventually the majority of the settlers dispersed back to their dayly activities. Leaving Fiona, Erin, Preston, and Nathan together in the living room. "Hon, you wait right there. I'll be back!" Nathan, struggling to push himself up from the chair, commanded. He awkwardly jogged off into the back room full of excitement. Fiona hummed, mostly focusing on picking the dried paint off Erin's hands. "I'm sorry. Did Preston force you into arts and crafts?" She whispered with a soft laugh. "Nathan. He's really excited." He sighed, leaning back into the couch. Fiona feigned a smile. "Yeah..." She awkwardly nodded. "Ok... What's with that? Your face is weird." From monotone to concern, Erin faced her. "I don't like celebrating my birthday." Fiona whispered pursing her lips. " I thought 18 was an important prewar thing. Or was that 16?" "Both. Usually. But it's kinda... A touchy subject." Fiona looked to the side.
    "Ok birthday girl!" Nathan dropped a heavy, news paper wrapped gift in her lap. "From Erin and I." He waited excitedly for her to unwrap it. Fiona looked to Erin confused. He looked nervous. Which made her nervous. She slowly peeled the news paper back. Carefully tearing it off, which hesitantly revealed a pale, washed out book cover. Curiously tossing the paper aside she read the title aloud. "Smithsonian Handbook of Interesting Insects." Her face immediately lit up. "Oh my god! you didn't!" She screamed hugging the obnoxiously large encyclopedia. It was in horrible condition, the spine falling apart and the pages nearly disintegrated. But she could still make out the shapes and colors of the butterflies. "Where did you get it?" She asked, flipping though the pages. "The Boston library. It's preserved remarkably for the conditions." "It's perfect! Thank you so much." Fiona smiled, near to tears. Nathan smiled. "It was all Erin's idea. I just went to find it. its a wonder the library's still held up...somewhat." He nodded towards him. Fiona placed the book to the side before pouncing onto him. "Thank you" she whispered, squeezing his neck.
    She almost forgot what butterflies looked like. What a tragedy that would be. Though Fiona was more surprised at the fact Erin remembered her interest in them. She wanted to kiss him but she couldn't, not Infront of Nathan. Pretty much everyone in the "inner circle" of the Minutemen knew, apart from him. Nate was old-fashioned and she really didn't want to have that conversation.
    "Now, I would've had a cake with 18 candles but... you know... bombs and such." "That's ok, haha. I haven't been keeping up with time anyway. Thank you all for this. But we should get back to work. I need to talk to Sturgess." Fiona glanced at Preston, who was now paying full attention. "You got it general. He's outside." She smiled at Preston, standing up to leave. Not before hugging her father and whispering a thank you.
      "Why don't you like your birthday?" Erin asked his partner, following her closely behind. "Do you even celebrate yours?" She remarked. "I asked you." "Why don't you celebrate your birthday?" "I just don't... Nathan was excited. I thought it was more important to you. Like a prewar thing." Fiona stopped waking and turned to face Erin. "That's the only time he's cared." Her demeanor was completely different. Somewhat annoyed or disappointed. Erin was clearly confused so she continued. "He would always promise to be home for my birthday. But he'd never show up. He'd say that every year untill he disappeared. So it's just a sore spot. Ok?" Fiona turned around and continued walking. "Ok." Erin caught up beside her. She subconsciously took his hand. "Why is 18 important?" He asked. Fiona understood his curiosity with prewar junk. "Well, back then it meant you were an adult. You could vote, buy a house, get married, get a tattoo, and enlist. But not drink. That was 21." She listed. "Oh. Then what's 16?" He asked. "Having a sweet 16 was a girl thing. Haha. I don't actually know why that one's important." "At least post war you can drink. laws don't exist anymore." "Yup. And neither do taxes! Which is also something you'd have to do at 18." Fiona laughed.

What did age matter anyway. She was asleep for something of 200 years. But now she's 18, an adult. No more excuses to be a kid. Time to grow up and face the music right?

"Hey boss. Been hoping you'd stop by. Ready to talk about how you're getting into the institute?"  Fiona smiled at the welcoming energy Sturges always brought to the table. "Absolutely." "Hard to believe those egg heads were dumb enough to leave another way in." Erin quipped.  "Yeah, well, it seems the institute isn't quite as self contained as they'd like everyone to believe. Turns out they're still using an old water pipe that runs out to the river. Brings in cooling water to their reactor." Fiona wondered how he could've possibly figured that out from the holotape, but couldn't be bothered to listen to that ramble. "Where do I find it?" "We'll, it's entrance is underwater, and its blocked by a security gate. Also the whole pipe is labeled "high radiation danger". But there isn't any other way in that I can find, so it's this or nothing."
  We'll shit. Fiona was never good at swimming. "Breaking through and underwater security grate in high radiation? Sounds like a blast." She attempted to joke. "Yeah I know. But that's the only way. I did manage to pull the code to open the gate. So all you have to do is survive the trip."